Open!

A zombie and a fairy princess rushed across the yard to greet me last night after yoga. After getting candy from my husband at the front door, they dashed to our newly installed Little Free Library. The zombie asked, "Are there any Jack and Annie books?" There was one, but it wasn't a Magic Tree House chapter book as he had hoped. Still, the zombie gladly snatched Mummies and Pyramids, the nonfiction companion to Mary Pope Osborne's Mummies in the Morning from our library shelf and went on his way trick-or-treating with delight.

Later, I rang the doorbell at their spookily decorated house, and after declining the candy bars they tried to stuff in my pockets, the zombie settled himself in my lap, the fairy princess snuggled against my side, and we started reading about ancient Egypt. The author cleverly assembled the research gathered for the fiction book into these ingeniously designed nonfiction books for readers. Sal Murdocca's illustrations accompany the text, and Jack and Annie present additional information and definitions in sidebars. Potentially unknown words are defined in context without interrupting the flow of the text. The readers with whom I shared the book groaned when their mom declared it was time for bed.